November Surprise Giveaway (Now Closed)

You may remember the decision I made a few months ago to stop selling my work; I felt that I was in a rut of making purse after purse, without enough room for creativity.  So when I closed  my little booth at the local store, I had some inventory left over; I wanted a few of the things for myself, but there are still a lot more goodies just sitting around.  What should I do with them?  Why not give them away to my readers?!

This is the first of what I intend to be monthly "surprise" giveaways.  The surprise is that they will just show up randomly and unannounced.  I won't publicize them anywhere, so only people who happen to read my blog in the two days that the giveaway is open will have a chance to win.

Since it has already started snowing in parts of the U.S., this wintery bag seems like the perfect one to give away this month!

Here are the details:

The front of this bag is reinforced quilting cotton; the back is blue canvas, and the lining is a wonderful upholstery fabric.   I use a layer of heavy interfacing to give the bag enough body to stand up on its own. The front is accented with braided trim and my signature handmade clay heart.

14" wide at the top
10" wide at the bottom
10" tall
4" deep
12.5" drop to the straps

Features:
Back pocket (great for keys or cell phone)
Inner pocket (closes with velcro)
Zipper at the top (with suede zipper pull)
Lightweight yet very sturdy

To enter the giveaway, please leave a comment below.  If you are not registered with Blogger, and your comment shows up as "anonymous", please include your email address so I can contact you if you win.  The giveaway will close at 10 a.m. EST on Saturday, Nov. 10th (two days from now).  I will announce the winner here on this blog shortly thereafter.

Good luck, and thanks for visiting my blog!

Luna Moth Bag

The Surprise Swap on Craftster is well under way; my friend Susan and I are the organizers.  For this swap, everyone knows information about the person they are crafting for and sending to, but they don't know who will be sending to them--that's the surprise!

I got busy crafting for my partner as soon as I knew who she was.  She gave a link to her blog, and the current entry there was about a luna moth she had seen in her yard. I love these insects, and I quickly decided I would make a luna moth patch and sew it to the front of a purse for her.

She likes earthy colors, so making the bag in brown and green was a no-brainer!

I made the luna moth patch by tracing an internet image onto paper, then cutting it out to make a template.  I used HeatnBond lite to hold the moth in place while I sewed the details with brown thread.

My partner had written and posted a haiku about the luna moth on her blog, so I knew that HAD to be on the bag too.  I ironed off-white fabric onto HeatnBond, then taped that to a sheet of paper, and put it into my computer printer.  The haiku printed onto the fabric perfectly!  I ironed it onto the bag, then stitched around it first with the sewing machine and then by hand with embroidery floss to give it a boarder.  I added a few buttons, and it was done!

The back has a big pocket:

The inside is lined with drapery fabric, and it has a big pocket too:

This is the most personalized bag I've ever made, and I'm THRILLED with how it turned out.  My partner loves it too--that's what really matters!

Another Spoonflower Bag

After I made the Pug Dog Purse for my sister-in-law, her friend saw it and wanted one too!  The friend's favorite dog is a miniature schnauzer...which is perhaps not the most widely known dog breed...and I suspected that it would be hard to find fabric with miniature schnauzers prominently featured...and I was right.  So I returned to Spoonflower, where a wonderful designer called Dogdaze had created just exactly the right fabric for this project.  I had to purchase a yard of it because of the placement of the design...so I have extra in case any of you would like a miniature schnauzer bag...anyway, the purse came out so beautifully, I am THRILLED with it!

I just adore the combination of aqua and black. 

I even had the perfect lining fabric in my stash!

I sent this purse to it's new home just before the July 4th holiday, so I haven't heard from the owner yet, but I can't imagine that she will be anything but pleased with it. 

Spoonflower Pug Dog Bag

My sister-in-law, Nora, loves her pug dog, and wanted a bag with a pug on it.  I thought it would be easy to find fabric featuring pugs, because I've seen a lot of pug-themed items online in the past few years; but when I searched for it, all I could find in my regular online fabric stores (eQuilter and fabric.com) was fabric that had an assortment of dogs, including maybe one little pug lost in the crowd...and that just wouldn't do!  I looked all over the web, and I ended up getting this fabric from Spoonflower.  Spoonflower is a unique website, where you can upload your own design and have it printed on fabric.  In this case, I bought a design someone else had made.  The fabric is printed to order, so, in addition to the extra time it takes for the fabric to arrive, the cost is about double what you pay for fabric elsewhere--which is why it was my last resort! 

The fabric I bought is actually designed to be made into a wallhanging, but it worked well for this bag because it has one large image of a pug.
Front:

Back:

Inside:

Nora also asked for a coin pouch, so I made this one with a keyring attached.  I used Heat n Bond to fuse a small dog image to both the front and the back of the pouch.

I will mail this out on Monday.  Nora has seen the pictures, and she is excited to see it in person!

Cute Shoes

I like cute shoes, but I've never been attracted to novelty fabrics featuring shoes.  Usually, the shoes (on fabrics or anything else) are high heels, which don't speak to me, because I don't wear heels--I only wear flats, like these super cute Crocs I just got:

(Thanks for modeling the shoes for me, Jenna!)

So, when I saw this fun fabric featuring pretty shoes in bright colors and unusual patterns in JoAnn's this week, I was in love!  I quickly bought a yard of it and whipped up a couple of these bags.

I want all these shoes!

But I will just have to settle for this shoe purse.  I can live with that!

London Calling!

My wonderful friend Susan went to London on business in January, and while there she purchased some amazing London-themed Kath Kidson fabric for me!  I finally had time this week to make this bright and happy bag!

The fabric she sent is a lightweight canvas, which is perfect for bags, and as you can see, all the things you associate with London are represented:  Buckingham Palace with the guards in front; Tower Bridge, double-decker busses, Big Ben, and the big ferris wheel.  In my stash I found the red canvas for the back, and the red and white stripe on the front, which go with it really well.

Front:

Back:

Inside:

I also had this other London print from eQuilter that I used for a coordinating keychain pouch.  The scale of the design is perfect for something this small, and the colors are good with the bag.

I've just listed this on Etsy as a "made to order" item, so I can take this one to my local shop.  I have enough of the fabric to make several more.

Thanks, Susan, for being so awesome, and for thinking of me while you were on your business trip! 

I spent a summer working in London before I got married, and this fabric brings back a lot of memories.  I'm loving this bag so much, it's possible it may not make it into the store...

Something New!

I made something new this week:  a full-sized ladies' wallet!  I'm really excited about it, because I've always intended to work up a design for a wallet, and this came out great!

See, on the left side it has a long slot for bills, and behind that is a long zippered pocket.  On the other side are six slots for cards.  A lot of wallets have the card slots facing upwards, towards the open side of the wallet, and I don't like that--I'm afraid a credit card could fall out unnoticed.  I designed this so the card slots and the bills pocket face the fold of the wallet, so when it is closed and snapped shut, nothing can fall out.

Why did I make it?  Because, when I was in Arkansas last week, I got an order on Etsy for this cupcake purse (below); the lady who ordered it says she is CRAZY for cupcakes!

She requested the long, single strap (instead of the two shorter straps I usually put on my bags)--which is no problem; then she asked if I make wallets to match my purses?   Well...I thought about it and decided that just because I haven't done it before doesn't mean I can't do it!   I said I would be happy to make a matching wallet.

As soon as I got home from my trip, I got working on it.  Past experience has shown me that any time I design something new, it isn't really good until I make the third one.  I didn't want to waste the limited cupcake fabric making the first two "practice" wallets, so I used this blue lollipop fabric instead (I have a lot of it for some reason!)   The blue wallet in this picture is the third one--sure enough, the first two were not good!

I was very happy with this blue wallet, so I went ahead and made my customer's wallet in the cupcake fabric.  I've sent her the purse and wallet, and she should be receiving them today.

I have just started using the blue one in my own (non-matching!) purse, so I can test it in action.  If I am totally satisfied with it, I will add it to my Etsy inventory.  It's so exciting to do something new!